Hiring a wedding photographer .... Sigh.

The economic law that I'm following now is "getting the most service for the smallest amount of money possible". LOL. This is especially has to be strictly applied when hiring wedding vendors. You know, we all know, anything with the label "wedding" attached to it has a premium price. You go to a salon for a regular make up and they charge you Rp. 200.000. But if it's a wedding make up, suddenly the price tag is Rp 2.000.000. Go figure.

So, it is extremely important, at least for me, to do my research and due diligence. One of the most ridiculously priced wedding item is documentary (photography and videography). This is how I approach hiring vendor for this item. First, it's browsing through internet forum and using Google search and Facebook to scour vendor recommendation and samples. Then, I filter out the ones that I like (for photography and videography, I have collected at least 70 vendor names, lol). Second, contacting them one by one to get their price list. Third, crossing out those with sky high, unreasonable price (100 million rupiah for a one-day wedding photography coverage? Umm, even if I am the president's daughter, I think it will be beyond my personality to blow that much money on one day.) And I'm left with a handful of vendors that match my criteria: giving the most service for the smallest amount of money possible.

I have my eyes on certain vendors now but I won't reveal any names before I make the deals with them. But this is what I will need to remember:

1. Discuss style, editing and poses which I absolutely would want done on the day.
2. Discuss delivery date.
3. Introduce them to my family to make sure they receive the needed coverage on the day.

Also, how important is it to have a good chemistry with your vendors? My slowly but surely developed bridezilla personality is not helping me in making an objective judgment toward my vendors. There are always something: they didn't reply my emails fast enough; they seem cold and unfriendly; they didn't answer all my questions; etc etc! Even when I found a good vendor, my mind seems to think, "hmm, this is too good to be true. They are too nice and too accommodating. Are they even professional?? What if they only do lip service?"

Gawat... My mind simply won't stop churning and turning, thinking and tinkering about various things wedding-related. And as I make my decisions hiring various vendors, it slowly dawns on me that "this is it, I'm gonna get married in just 15 short weeks!" May God have His abundant mercy on me ...